Voices of Youth in Chicago Education – Chicago Newstips by Community Media Workshophttp://www.newstips.org
Chicago Community StoriesMon, 05 Feb 2018 23:03:57 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.14Fenger High School – a model for CPShttp://www.newstips.org/2012/03/fenger-high-school-%e2%80%93-a-model-for-cps/
Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:08:44 +0000http://www.newstips.org/?p=6029Mark Brown offers an inspiring report on the success of restorative justice in “creating an atmosphere that is both disciplined and relaxed” at Fenger High School, overcoming the unfortunate notoriety the school received with the killing of Derrion Albert in 2009.

That’s the bigger picture: coalitions like VOYCE and the High Hopes Campaign – building on the work of community groups like Blocks Together and POWER-PAC, and the in-school efforts of social service agencies like Alternatives Inc. and the Chicago Area Project — are pressing CPS to put real resources behind the restorative justice approach it officially embraced, at least on paper, in 2006.

VOYCE points out that CPS spends millions of dollars on zero-tolerance discipline approaches that aren’t effective at improving student behavior or making schools safer – and that only make dropout rates worse. Both High Hopes and VOYCE emphasize the blatant racial disparities in the use of harsh discipline – an issue recently backed up by Arne Duncan.

Mayor Emanuel says improving high schools is going to be a priority. It needs to be; in two decades of school reform, high schools have been the most resistant to change.

The very first step should be a serious commitment to implementing restorative justice – an approach that holds students accountable for their behavior and supports them to do better, that solves problems rather than kicking them out the door; the approach that’s had such success at Fenger – in every school across the district.

And take advantage of the detailed work of committed Chicagoans on this issue: last year’s report from the VOYCE on the true cost of zero-tolerance policies in CPS; and the important new report from High Hopes, spelling out the steps involved in implementing restorative justice in CPS, including best practices, an analysis of existing barriers in CPS, and how to pay for it.

In fact, High Hopes estimates that CPS could save money — more than $20 million a year — by shifting funding priorities from zero tolerance strategies to restorative justice.

Two years ago Fenger showed us that the status quo is intolerable – and today Fenger is showing us that the problems are not intractable. It’s a redemption story fitting for springtime. But it has important lessons for all of us, and it’s up to us to put them into action.

]]>Students call on Emanuel to back discipline reformhttp://www.newstips.org/2012/03/students-call-on-emanuel-to-back-discipline-reform/
http://www.newstips.org/2012/03/students-call-on-emanuel-to-back-discipline-reform/#commentsSun, 04 Mar 2012 19:50:32 +0000http://www.newstips.org/?p=5968Student activists and elected officials will launch a petition drive Monday calling on Mayor Emanuel to reverse his support for extreme disciplinary policies that they say are ineffective and force kids out of school and onto the streets.

Students from Voices of Youth in Chicago Education will be joined by County Commissioner Jesus Garcia, State Senator Willie Delgado, and State Representative Kim Dubuclet for a press conference at the Cook County Junevile Center, 2245 W. Ogden, at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 5.

Students will share research and personal experiences showing that punitive disciplinary approaches – ranging from fines for misconduct at Noble Charter Schools to suspensions and expulsions at traditional schools – target black and Latino students disproportionately and increase their risk of failure.

New research by students in VOYCE, reviewing tens of thousands of disiplinary actions at CPS over the past year, shows the vast majority were for offenses that did not pose serioius and immediate safety threats, according to the group.

While Emanuel pushes for a longer school day, CPS policies cause hundreds of thousands of lost school days for kids most at risk, they point out.

VOYCE is a citywide multiracial youth organization focused on reducing dropouts. After a 2008 report on “Student-Led Solutions to the Dropout Crisis,” the goup piloted a program in which 300 members served as peer mentors to 700 freshmen in eight high schools. They found extended suspensions for minor misbehavior to be a major obstacle to getting kids on track (see Newstips from July 2011).

More recently the group highlighted the use of fines for misbehavior at Noble Charter Schools, which they say has pushed low-income students out. Emanuel defended Noble in the controversy.

“As the Noble Charter example shows us, without transparency schools can get away with discipline policies that force out students who need the most support,” said Victor Alquicira, a sophomore at Roosevelt High School. “All schools that get taxpayer dollars should be held accountable to educating all of us.”

Under pressure from community groups and youth advocates, CPS added language to its discipline code backing restorative justice — which “combines strict control and strong support,” according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Agency — but has failed to implement the change, critics say (see last month’s post).

Research has shown that restorative justice is effective where harsh discipline fails to make schools safer or improve students’ behavior and achievement. Studies have also consistently found that students of color receive harsher discipline than white students for similar misconduct.

Following the press conference, students will go door-to-door collecting signatures on the petition.

]]>http://www.newstips.org/2012/03/students-call-on-emanuel-to-back-discipline-reform/feed/1Pushing out students: Noble, AUSL, and CPShttp://www.newstips.org/2012/02/pushing-out-students-noble-ausl-and-cps/
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:47:39 +0000http://www.newstips.org/?p=5670There were two big school stories in the past week – the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for minor infractions charged to students by Noble Charter Schools, and the sit-in at Piccolo Elementary by parents and supporters opposing a turnaround by the Academy of Urban School Leadership – and one issue that cuts across both is growing opposition to harsh, ineffective discipline policies that force kids out of school.

At AUSL, where the Board of Education will vote on six additional turnarounds on Wednesday, it raises questions about unstable school leadership, wildly shifting school policies, and failure to support programs promised in AUSL submissions to CPS.

“We agree there should be consequences for minor infractions, but Noble is not doing it the right way, and as a result, students are leaving,” said Emma Tai of VOYCE. She said Noble has acknowledged that 40 percent of entering students leave before senior year. (Ben Joravsky has previously reported on Noble’s fines, demerits, counseling out of kids, and charges for make-up courses.)

Bigger picture

But Noble is “just one piece of a much larger picture,” Tai said. “Whether it’s demerits and fines at Noble or suspensions, expulsions, and arrests at [traditional] schools, there are practices in all our schools to keep students on lockdown and push them out.”

Concern over test scores may be a bigger driver of the approach than concern over safety, she suggests.

“We should be making sure that all schools are putting a full-faith effort into keeping young people in schools,” she said. “What’s happening in all our schools [reflects] the real failure of our public officials to use our public dollars to make sure every child gets a quality education.”

At Piccolo, parents protesting the proposed turnaround charged that at other turnarounds, “AUSL has not lived up to promises of increased support for at-risk students” and “AUSL has pushed out students through zero tolerance discipline” as well as “dropping students and counseling out low-performing students.”

One group backing Piccolo, Blocks Together, has worked extensively with students at Orr Academy, now in its third year as an AUSL turnaround school, and they report a variety of practices that seem to conflict with AUSL’s commitments to CPS.

AUSL and the CPS code

In its 2007 RFP submission to CPS prior to being given Orr, AUSL pledged to follow the district’s student code of conduct, to support students with behavioral issues, and to institute a peer mediation program.

The CPS code calls for an investigation of an incident with students “afforded the opportunity to respond to the charges.” That doesn’t happen at Orr, BT says. The code indicates a range of consequences for first-time minor infractions (like inappropriate language), including teacher-student conferences, conferences including parents or administrators, and detention; suspension is reserved for repeat offenses. That’s not the practice at Orr either, apparently.

“There are no steps, there’s no effort to look at the situation,” said youth organizer Ana Mercado. She adds that, with constant administrative change at Orr – two principals in three years, and a revolving door for other administrators — disciplinary policies have fluctuated greatly. “The expectations and consequences keep changing on the kids,” she said.

Turning kids away

Orr also “turns kids away when they come to school without their uniform,” said Hoye. “The tell them don’t come back till you have one.” (He also complains about steep increases in the price Orr charges for its uniform jersey.)

The CPS code specifies that students who fail to abide by a school’s uniform policy may be barred from extracurricular activities but may not be given suspensions or detensions “or otherwise barred from attending class.”

And while the code requires parents to be informed of punitive measures, Orr got in trouble last year for dropping students without informing them or their parents.

AUSL also promised to institute a peer mediation program, but when BT trained students in restorative justice methods so they could serve as peer jurors, Orr administrators provided little to no suppport. In the first year, administrators referred six cases to the peer jury; this year they’ve referred none, Mercado said.

“They said they would do it and then they just didn’t do it at all,” said Hoye, who was trained as a juror. “The administrators are not following through on what they said they were going to do.”

CPS drops the ball

That’s mirrored on a district-scale by CPS, which included restorative justice language in a recent disciplinary code revision, but has failed to “put their dollars where their mouth is,” Tai said.

Last year VOYCE issued a report documenting many tens of millions of dollars spent on zero-tolerance strategies that are “not only ineffective, but counterproductive.” Restorative justice programs in schools rely on local initiative and must scuffle by on one-year competitive grants, Tai said.

Research is clear that zero-tolerance approaches — and heavy use of suspensions — do not improve school safety or student learning, Tai said. She points to a recent study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which shows that it’s the quality of relationships staff have with students and parents that distinguishes schools where students and teachers report feeling safe.

“In fact, disadvantaged schools with high-quality relationships actually feel safer than advantaged schools with low-quality relationships,” according to the report. And notably, schools with high suspension rates are less safe than schools in similar neighborhoods with low suspension rates.

The Consortium argues that “emphasis on punitive discipline approaches” is particularly unhelpful with “students who are already less likely to be engaged in school.” “Schools serving a large number of low-achieving students must make stronger efforts to foster trusting, collaborative relationships with students and their parents.”

Notes Tai: “When young people are given a five dollar fine for slumping in their seats, or when they’re suspended for a week for trying to calm down a fight, you’re eroding those relationships.”

“You’re forcing students out, and you’re not making schools safer.”

There’s another bottom line, she notes: The fact that under zero tolerance, black students are given much harsher punishments than white students commiting the same infractions shows there’s something very wrong with the whole approach.

Increased accountability for charters, turnarounds, and other nontraditional schools – and a commitment by CPS to implement restorative justice system-wide – would make schools safer and help the kids who need the most help become better students, she says. It seems clear – with 11.6 percent of Orr’s students meeting or exceeding expectations, and a steadily-declining attendance rate, now at 66 percent – the status quo isn’t working.

]]>Students target school discipline policieshttp://www.newstips.org/2011/07/students-target-school-discipline-policies/
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:49:06 +0000http://www.newstips.org/?p=4585While a new mayor and schools chief are promising to reduce the dropout rate in Chicago schools, a group of CPS students is pointing to the school system’s “harsh discipline policies” as “a major obstacle to graduation.”

Scores of students and their community supporters will gather for the release at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 14 outside CPS headquarters, 125 S. Clark. The students are seeking a meeting with CPS chief Jean Claude Brizard.

Among those speaking will be Jim Freeman, director of the School-to-Prison Pipeline Project of the Advancement Project, a national civil rights group which reported in 2005 on high levels of in-school arrests at CPS (see Newstips 8-24-05).

CPS spends tens of millions of dollars each year “on the enforcement of harsh discipline policies that have proven ineffective,” according to a release from VOYCE. Costs will rise next year when the city stops subsidizing the cost of stationing Chicago police in schools.

According to VOYCE, the school district’s Office of Safety and Security is 48 times larger than its Office of Student Support and Engagement.

The group joins other campaigns calling for reform of school discipline. Most recently a coalition of churches in the High Hopes Campaign has targeted the overreliance on suspensions and expulsions, which it says contributes to the dropout rate (more here).

The new report grows out of several years of work inside schools to reduce dropouts. Following a 2008 report on “Student-Led Solutions to the Dropout Crisis,” VOYCE members piloted a program to provide social and emotional support to freshmen.

Some 300 VOYCE activists served as peer mentors to about 700 freshmen in eight high schools. They also held retreats and college preparation workshops.

But punitive discipline often presented obstacles, said coordinator Emma Tai. “It doesn’t help get attendance up when you have students being suspended for as much as two weeks for really minor misbehavior,” she said.

One student VOYCE worked with was a former tagger who had turned his attention to school, was improving his grades and was close to graduating on time, she said.

Then police called him to the school office to identify a tag; when he couldn’t, they showed him a year-old tag which he had done and arrested him. He was suspended for two weeks, Tai said.

VOYCE members commented on the incident in a letter of introduction to the new report (it’s been posted at the Connected by 25 blog):

“As students, we feel greatly affected by how CPS handles school discipline. Harsh discipline policies create institutions where we are expected to fail, because they are based on the fear that young people of color are future criminals, not the hope that we will be future leaders.

“Rather than giving us the positive environment we need to actually learn and accomplish our dreams, these policies suspend, arrest, or just kick us out of school for very minor actions, causing us to fall weeks behind in our classes and distrust the adults who are supposed to be looking out for us.

“No one wants safe schools more than we do, but getting arrested for writing your name on a desk doesn’t make us feel safe. It makes us feel like we aren’t even human—like we are animals. Being treated like this in a place where our dreams are supposed to be supported only breaks our spirits down.

“The motto of CPS is to educate, inspire, and transform students. In order for CPS to really educate, inspire, and transform students, they have to learn to listen to us first!”